Europa rejects contact - Attempt no landing!

Europa was always an obvious candidate for finding life in the outer solar system. Close in size to our Moon, this Jovian satellite is a rocky body made of silicate rock that is covered in a thick shell of ice. Thanks to the extreme tidal forces put on it by circling Jupiter, it is constantly stretched and compressed. This friction does not only regularly create planetwide cracks in the ice, but, together with the decay of radioactive material from the core, produces enough heat to melt the lower layers of the ice into a vast, globe-spanning underground ocean, possibly with even more liquid water than all of Earth’s oceans combined. This ocean interacts with its overlying ice shell much like the Earth’s mantle does with the tectonic plates, lifting, shifting and subducting the ice layers, which have the consistency and behaviour of hard rocks due to the surface temperatures. Sometimes even cryovolcanoes and geysers are formed this way, their plumes being our first hints towards the existence of this ocean. It was not difficult to imagine the vast possibilities of alien ecosystems in this unique environment, from algal life clinging to the thinner sections of the ice roof to cameronesque vistas of bioluminescent deep sea life clustered around hydrothermal vents. Maybe there were even space whales.

After Mars and Venus, Europa was naturally the next target for large-scale exploration and research. After the success of the Horus Missions, the Minos-1 and 2 operations were designed and sent to the Jupiter system by NASA in largely the same style. While M-1 only consisted of robotic probes, M-2 already brought human explorers to the ice moon. I have nothing but respect for those pioneers who went on M-2, for even back then it was realized that the challenges on Europa and on the way there are much greater than any of my missions to Mars. The journey to Jupiter alone took over six years, which even with stops at the ILS, Mars and the Ceres Waypoint will take an enormous toll on the human psyche due to the isolation. Europa’s surface has no tangible atmosphere and is constantly bombarded by radiation, which would cause severe illness in any unprotected human in just one day. Add to that the fact that the tidal forces cause the very ground to constantly contort and crack, sometimes causing mountain-sized spikes and plates to jut out in the span of a few weeks, putting any permanent surface station at high risk. I really think it was a mistake to send humans to Europa this early, but of course our government felt the need to do it because the Soviets were already doing it.

What no astronaut or cosmonaut at the time could have been prepared for was what really lurked beneath the ice. The early robotic probes had already sent back perplexing data. The first hydrobots to enter did not encounter a saltwater ocean like expected, but instead a fluid that was chemically reminiscent of cytosol. While mostly very watery, some probes encountered bizarre zones of high viscosity which impeded their movement, as if they got stuck in masses of jelly. Biologically, the ocean seemed both alive and desolate. There were no space fish, krill or whales, no corals, seaweed or bioluminescent deep sea creatures. The first lifeforms encountered were instead strange and nonsensical. There were large swarms of unicells that were highly metabolically active but were extremely reduced in morphology, almost like free-swimming mitochondria or chloroplasts. From the thinner sections of the ice roofs hung algae-like multicellular forms, who were solely composed of photosynthetic organs with some structural support, with no obvious organs for reproduction or energy-storage. In fact, they seemed to simply eject the sugar they produced into the ocean water! Through these clouds then swam small, bristleworm-like forms, who seemed to absorb the sugar before darting away. At no point during any observation of the two Minos missions was there ever any recorded interaction between organisms which resembled classic behaviours of herbivory or carnivory. Nothing made sense.

Also encountered were large, gelatinous balls floating in the water, sometimes three metres in diameter. They had large orifices, originally interpreted to be mouths, out of which swam worm-like forms similar to the ones mentioned before. These moved restlessly and frantically between the mouths of the gelatinous spheres. What was truly fascinating was that when the hydrobots approached the sphere clusters for further investigation, they were almost always attacked by some type of predatory creature which resembled a mix between a polychaete and a moray eel. Dissections done by the Soviets and later the M-2 teams revealed that the large mandibles of these creatures did not connect to a mouth – in fact they entirely lacked anything resembling a digestive or even reproductive system, instead largely consisting of muscles, nerves, circulation and some fat storage – meaning that organ existed solely to attack. The same was true of any of the worm-like forms swimming between the gelatinous spheres and around the algae-like forms.

IRO-1

Once the Minos-2 mission arrived, labs and stations were able to be set up at the surface, where the biological samples collected by the surviving probes could be further analysed. State-of-the-art sequencers were able to decode the genome of the Europan organisms, and the results were both astounding and disturbing. Least surprising was that the organism’s chromosomes consisted of a form of nucleic acid, just like on most of the other life-bearing planets, but of a different composition than those on Earth, Venus or Mars, which again indicates a separate case of abiogenesis. This xenonucleic acid (XNA) consisted of an unprecedented number of nine nucleotide bases, which meant these organisms worked off a genomic code much more complex than any lifeform we knew before. And the chromosomes and their XNA-strings were huge, though largely consisting of seemingly useless sections, which on Earth we would usually call junk-DNA. But something truly remarkable was observed with unicellular Europan cells that were experimented on in a controlled setting: When exposed to external stimuli, the cells could rewrite the “junk” sections of their XNA almost on a whim. When exposed to these stimuli on a regular basis, the cells eventually reacted to them with perfect timing and anticipation. They had some form of memory and, it seems, they used their XNA as a medium for data-storage. In addition to this, they engaged frequently in horizontal gene transfer with other cells, including ones that were seemingly unrelated, at much higher rates than any bacterium or areont from the inner solar system.

But the true shock came when the genome of all the Europan samples were compared with each other, revealing that there was no difference! Every single-celled organism, every plant-like form, every worm and every gelatinous sphere had the exact same number of chromosomes containing the exact same genome! They function like the cells in your brain and the ones in your toes, containing the same biological programming but just using differenct sections of it. All of the Minos teams found the exact same conditions across the whole moon and the same was corroborated by released data from the Soviets. This, combined with all the other observed oddities, led the researchers to only one uncomfortable conclusion, one which strains human understanding:

The ocean of Europa is a single superorganism and all the smaller lifeforms encountered within it are simply its organs.

And we pissed it off.

Shortly after the Minos-24 team landed and did their invasive probing into Europa, cracks started to emerge in the ice close to the surface base and out of the cracks crawled strange entities nicknamed “ice crabs”. Resembling human-sized bacteriophages with almost comical jaws and scythe-arms, these were terrifying creatures encased in exoskeletons of pure ice which immediately began overrunning the base and attacking it. Obviously unprepared and unarmed, the astronauts suffered casualties and had to abandon the base. A Soviet research station suffered the same type of attack around the same time after doing an experiment where they exposed parts of the ocean to X-rays. Strange behaviour was observed at the attack sites from orbit. After eliminating the threat, some of the ice crabs crawled back beneath the crust but most wandered around aimlessly until freezing in place, presumably succumbing to the radiation. Samples taken from the fragment of a dead ice crab show that underneath its icy shell it was made of the same biological matrix as the other organomorphs. 

 IRO-2

After the remaining Minos teams re-established their bases with precautions against further attacks, a rudimentary working theory on Europa’s nature could be worked out. Organomorphs such as the ice crabs or the worm-eel have been designated as some form of immune reaction against outside threats. The fact that the latter seems to be protecting the gelatinous spheres indicates that those organomorphs are of greater importance. Maybe they are some form of energy-storage or possibly even coordination-centres, with the smaller bristleworms acting as units of communication and transportation between them and the other organs. Another special type of worm-like organomorph with a syringe-like proboscis was observed swimming between the other organomorphs and injecting them with fluid, which is presumably how all the components are fed. The planktonic swarms and algae-like organomorphs seem to simply provide the system with nutrients, but they cannot possibly be the only method of energy-production supporting this moon-sized organism. Surely there must be more organomorphs feeding off the chemicals of hydrothermal vents, but none of the hydrobots have survived long enough to explore Europa’s ocean bottom. Possibly the superorganism also feeds off the tidal energy and some magnetic anomalies on Europa have been used as evidence that it may even be tapping into the energy of Jupiter’s magnetosphere. All bets are off with an entity that is this foreign. How the known individual organomorphs are even formed is also a mystery, as they cannot reproduce by themselves. Possibly the hollow spheroids also act as a form of womb in which the individual organomorphs gestate. Things like the ice crabs might start out as gelatinous matter that swims close to the crust, where the water becomes a sort of ice slush, and crystalize an exoskeleton around themselves before going to the surface.

The existence of the immune-response-organomorphs (IROs) bears two possible and rather disturbing implications. Why would a gigantic organism that is this isolated have evolved an immune system? Have other… entities… landed here before that caused Europa to evolve this adaptation? Or is this simply a remnant from an earlier time when the ocean was not yet a unified organism but competing with other lifeforms? Perhaps more plausible is that the IROs were generated only recently in response to human activity. It is notable that the first manned and unmanned Soviet missions did not encounter the aquatic IRO-1 and were able to inspect the spheroids up close for a time. Only after they captured one of the spheroids in a net and dredged it to the surface did attacks on the hydrobots by IRO-1s begin. It is possible then that Europa, rather quickly, generated this new organomorph as a response to a perceived threat. The implication that then follows is that the organism is capable of perceiving damage to its system and reacting to it. This is further supported by the existence of the ice crabs, IRO-2s, who seem to have no other function other than to eliminate the source of the threat. Shortly before the attacks, the victims at both sites even reported seeing tiny, cricket-like ice creatures hopping across the surface, whose faces were just one large circular eye. If correctly interpreted, these could have been “scouts”, little biological cameras meant to localize the source of the threat. By most definitions it would mean Europa is sentient. But is it sentient in the same way that a bacterium or a jellyfish can mechanically react to outside stimuli, or can it actually think on some level? Bearing in mind the experiments done on the memory-cells and the implication that their abilities apply to all the other organomorphs as well, it would indeed mean that Europa has a way of creating, storing, copying and sharing data between all of its components. So yes, it maybe can think. Is it intelligent? Nobody knows and I wonder if we even want to know. If Europa can dynamically “design” the IROs depending on its needs, it could indeed mean that it is at the very least capable of creative thinking and planning. If these are instead instinctually generated from older genetic memory, it would mean that Europa had to use them previously, before ever interacting with humans, which bears a whole lot of other unsettling implications.

Further research all proved futile. One of our scientists, convinced of Europa’s intelligence, tried to make “contact” by sending down a hydrobot to the spheroids which emitted a simple message through sonar waves and light. The bot was immediately attacked and destroyed. The cosmonauts tried something similar but instead, rather cleverly, by encoding a simple binary message into strings of XNA and releasing them into the water. There was no observable response to this, at least as far as they were willing to tell us.

While these and more experiments were being carried out, the attacks from the IROs grew bolder. Perimeter fences around the surface bases at first proved effective, while the astronauts were able to defend themselves by repurposing thrusters from drones into heat rays that could melt the carapace of the IROs. With time, however, the IROs began systematically testing the fences for weak spots until they found ways to break in. And with each new attack, the appearance of the IROs slightly changed. Their carapaces grew thicker, their arms and legs longer and stronger and more and more icicle-like teeth appeared in their maws. They were adapting. Eventually all the bases were unable to conduct research and came under threat of becoming overrun. After one of the captains, suffering from immense psychological damage due to the isolation and grief, crashed one of the spaceships into the surface, Minos-2 was immediately terminated and deemed a failure, ordering all the remaining astronauts to evacuate and return to Earth.

The Soviets held out a little longer, but at a high cost. Towards the very end they reported being attacked by a new type of IRO which they called the “pavuk”. It was a sort of ice spider about twice the size of an elephant. From its four spindly legs hung a huge polyhedron, which the IRO used like a wrecking ball to demolish any of the remaining surface habitats. The smaller IRO-2s reportedly swarmed around the pavuks, as if they were some form of leadership. Only very few cosmonauts made it back from Europa.

 IRO-3

No further missions have been sent to Europa by anyone ever since. All we are left with are questions upon questions. What is the true extent of the superorganism? The fact that they have only been able to explore the upper water layers means that there might be many more organomorphs and maybe even more complex systems lurking in the depths. Some sonar images imply whale-sized entities swimming somewhere down there. Classified orbital images I was able to see showed strange formations in the ice, which some have interpreted as larger versions of the ice-IROs that have died and frozen in place. Much, much larger. If I remember the scalebar correctly, one of these alleged exoskeletons must have been as long as a giant redwood is tall.

Then comes the question of Europa’s intelligence. I believe a true case can be made that Europa can think and come up with new concepts, seeing as how it seems capable of altering its organomorphs in response to human defences. Is it intelligent in any way comprehensible to humans? I do not know. If the whole ocean is filled with thinking and communicating cells like this, it could potentially have a computing power stronger than any human brain or supercomputer. The fact it uses its own genome as a form of data storage could mean it has a memory that could span millions of years into the past. This could be a god-like entity beyond our understanding. And it does not like us. At no point was Europa willing to make contact. Its only responses to human activity were either apathy or active hostility. Maybe relations could have been more friendly if the cosmonauts did not accidentally damage the organism before realizing what they were doing, but it seems that ship has now sailed. Europa does not want to be contacted.

Lastly, there is of course the question of how a superorganism like this can even come into existence in the first place. As soon as life emerges, natural selection would dictate for it to become selfish and split up the biosphere into multiple separate entities competing with each other. Either Europa went a separate path from the very moment of abiogenesis or something truly unusual must have happened later on. What if this is the result of some sort of biological equivalent to the Grey Goo scenario? One organism became so successful that, almost like a cancer, it began spreading out and absorbing everything else, until filling out the whole biosphere and stabilizing into its current form. Perhaps all the different organomorphs we see are the genetic ghosts of once free-living species whose anatomy was assimilated and co-opted by the organism.

I have argued long and hard with myself about whether I should mention this, as I am technically not allowed to talk about it. But I am close to croaking anyway, so what is the worst they can do? Kill me twice? No, they will just claim this is a hoax I made up, the sceptics will continue to label it as such and only the crazies will believe me. That is how they have always handled these things, ever since the Majestic 12 documents under Truman. Due to my work on Mars, I was originally planned to go to Europa for Minos-3, before that mission was cancelled due to M-2’s failure. We were shown highly classified information during the briefings. I already talked about the satellite images, but we were also able to read reports in which the astronauts of M-2 reported finding strange objects frozen in the ice or ejected from geysers. They did not look biological, but neither did they look like they could have come from us or the Soviets. I was unable to take a photograph, but I was able to sketch the most distinctive object they directly showed us from memory:

Sketch of putative Europan artefact inscribed with unknown writing.

Our superiors were themselves unsure about the authenticity of the object. It was allegedly recovered by one of the surviving M-2 astronauts and brought to Earth, but he himself kept it secret at the time. After returning to Earth, he became a member of the Church of Synthology and paraded the piece around in private congregations as an affirmation of the cult’s beliefs. It only came under government possession after his house was raided, following the aftermath of what happened on the International Lunar Station. It therefore seems highly likely that the piece could have just been a forgery, which the person used to further his position in the church while leveraging his reputation as a former astronaut.

But assuming that this thing was genuinely found on Europa, the implications would be stark, as it would be the first definitive xenoarchaeological proof of an alien civilization. We would then have to ask if this artefact is simply from other visitors to Europa, who were similarly chewed up and spit out by the superorganism, or if this is the remnant of a civilization that was native to the moon. If it is the latter, what happened to them? Do they still exist deep inside the moon and the superorganism is just their guard dog? Or were they consumed by it? Maybe it was an experiment that had gone horrifically wrong. Or maybe they did this willingly. What if this is the end point of any biosphere which develops intelligent beings? Look at what we are doing to Earth, replacing all of its biomass with humans and domesticated organisms that serve humans. Maybe in a few million years, Earth’s biosphere will only be a writhing mass of post-human swarms controlled by computerized overminds, while the descendants of cows, corn and chicken will be genetically altered to such a degree that they are stripped off all individuality and will simply be another component of the human hive system.

We will never get any answer to these questions in our lifetimes. No further missions to Europa are planned by any space agency or government on the globe, at least none aimed at probing the ocean. All further ambitions, such as establishing aquatic colonies under the ice or even using Europa’s water reserves to terraform the inner planets, have consequently been thwarted by the moon as well. Europa is deemed so off-limits, so cursed, that there are now talks about an international treaty like the one in Antarctica. Even if we were to go there again, Europa will probably not let us explore further.

There is a moon-sized superorganism living in our solar system. It is potentially of immense intellect but has no interest in establishing contact with us. We will never understand its true nature and we may have made it angry. And there is nothing we can do about all of this. We simply have to live with this reality.

Europa is best left alone. It does not want us there. Attempt no landing.

Perhaps Enceladus will be a better prospect.